A person's location is used in a number of different contexts. For example, people use a smart phone for mapping purposes or to obtain precise, turn-by-turn navigational directions based on a current location. Additionally, a person's location can be used by stores or third-party marketing services to provide notifications of shopping or sales opportunities that are geographically-relevant to the person. In an outdoor scenario, a person's location can often be determined to a sufficiently accurate degree using the Global Positioning System (GPS) and an electronic device with a GPS capability. With an indoor navigational scenario, on the other hand, determining a person's location is usually more difficult because a building's roof and walls block a direct line-of-sight between the satellites of the GPS system and the electronic device.
One of the difficulties with indoor navigation entails installation and maintenance costs of infrastructure used to locate and then track or navigate a user within a building, such as a multi-floor office tower or a single-story dwelling. Current indoor location methods involve using Wi-Fi access point (AP) infrastructure and the motion sensors of an electronic device, such as an accelerometer or a compass. One challenge with using motion sensors is that various devices have sensors with different levels of accuracy. A challenge with using Wi-Fi signaling to determine a person's location is that Wi-Fi systems, and the access points thereof, are usually designed and setup for the purpose of data coverage and not to facilitate navigation. Consequently, conventional approaches to determining a person's location continue to be costly, imprecise, or both, especially in indoor environments.